Morning (TROT) COFFEY.

Not
to be confused with journeyman righthander Todd Coffey, the TROT COFFEY is a
mailing list-only update on what the media has unearthed at various busy times
of year, such as the July and August trade deadlines, the GM Meetings, and the
Winter Meetings:

A little Saturday
morning COFFEY, which I need myself more than usual since I arrived at a conclusion
45 minutes ago that only a parent of eight- and four-year-olds can conceivably arrive
at, that whoever wrote the “High School Musical” song “We’re All in This Together”
seems to have thieved parts of the melody from the theme song to “Full House”
(yes, it’s in syndication, and suddenly a stopdown for my daughter), a disturbing
conclusion to be sure, disturbing primarily in that the analysis even took
place in my decaying brain.Gimme some
baseball.

One local reporter suggests
that Boston, Florida, and Detroit make up the top tier of contenders to
trade pitching to the Rangers for a catcher, with Kansas City, San
Francisco, the Mets, and Cincinnati as fringe suitors, and the Yankees as a
longshot.

The same reporter believes the
Rangers prefer the potentially available young pitchers from Boston in this order: Clay Buchholz, Michael Bowden, and
Justin Masterson, while the Red Sox prioritize the Texas catchers as follows: Taylor
Teagarden, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and Gerald Laird.

The same reporter believes the
Marlins are interested in Teagarden, Saltalamacchia, and Max Ramirez, but
not Laird, and while they are pushing Scott Olsen and Kevin Gregg, Texas will
probably try to redirect talks toward Ricky Nolasco or Andrew Miller,
either of whom would take more than just a catcher to acquire – the reporter
proposes Saltalamacchia or Teagarden plus Neftali Feliz for Nolasco and
left-handed reliever Renyel Pinto, which just gave me a stomach ache.

The same reporter points out
that Detroit lacks the young pitching Texas would need in a catcher trade,
suggesting that perhaps Laird plus a pitching prospect could fetch Jeremy
Bonderman, unless Texas would consider Laird for Nate Robertson, the latter
of which just gave me a stomach ache.

The same reporter suggests that
Cincinnati
seemed interested at one point in a Laird for Homer Bailey trade, but the
fact that Bailey finished the season hurt might gum that possibility up.

Cincinnati GM Walt Jocketty has
visited with the Rangers regarding their catchers, and if Bailey is available
at all, it won’t be for a “quick fix” – I’m not sure if the two points are
related (John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer)

The Braves are now in on Olsen
. . . and I hope they get him (Scott Miller of CBSSports.com)

The Rangers, along with the
Angels, Mets, and Tigers, have asked to look at reliever Chad Cordero’s
medical records . . . the former closer’s first choice is to pitch for the
Angels (Bill Ladson of MLB.com)

The Mets are shopping relievers
Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis, and Pedro Feliciano, and Texas is interested
in at least Heilman (Ken Davidoff of Newsday)

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that an anonymous
baseball source is saying “there’s no way Bud [Selig] and the owners are
going to let” Mark Cuban buy the Cubs.“Zero chance,” says the source.

There are evidently two
external candidates for San Diego’s
vacated television play-by-play gig – Josh Lewin and Victor Rojas, though both
are under contract with the Rangers (Jay Posner of the San Diego
Union-Tribune)

Some notes:

Atlanta named Dom Chiti special assistant
to general manager Frank Wren.Chiti
pitched for five seasons in the Braves’ minor league system 30 years ago.Among the other special assistants the Braves
employ are Jim Fregosi and Chuck McMichael.

The Lincoln
Saltdogs of the independent American Association named Marty Scott manager.Scott served briefly as the Mets’ interim AAA
manager in New Orleans
last season.

There are
now links on the right side of the front page of www.NewbergReport.com to the cover story
that the Dallas
Observer did on the Newberg
Report four years ago, and to the Observer‘s “Fab 50″ Most Powerful People in Metroplex Sports rankings
for 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Also, if
you click the image on the front page of the 2009 Bound Edition, you’ll be sent
to a page that gives you almost-full details on the book – all it lacks is the
added special that if you buy at least two copies of the book, you’ll get a
free copy of any previous year’s volume, your choice.

As for the
$2 discount special on the 2009 book, that one expires in one week.

Should have
final details on the site for the December 10 Book Release Party this week.Stay tuned.

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